Bee in the City

We spent most of yesterday in Manchester as Paul wanted to see and photograph the Sopwith Snipe which was part of a display of planes which is travelling the country to celebrate 100 years of the Royal Air Force. 

  The planes were on display in Albert Square in front of the town hall and as we walked down there from Piccadilly Station we spotted quite a few bees.

'Bee in the City' is an art and sculpture trail of about 100 large bees and many smaller ones across the city.

Each bee has been designed by a different artist to celebrate the unique buzz of the city from its industrial heritage to its vibrant music scene.

Organised by Wild in Art and Manchester City Council the bees are a great learning facility for schools, colleges and community groups and are a source of pleasure for locals and visitors.   Above the bee outside Selfridges department store.

  We had great fun spotting them along our rather meandering route to Albert Square and down to the Museum of Science and Technology. Above is the Queen Bee by Lee O'Brien in the Royal Exchange which was once the hub of the cotton trade.

The trail of bees has been in the city since 23rd of July and finally closes on 23rd of September.  We  managed to see just a few of them before they all buzz away.  We were told by one of the collectors for the RAF Centenary appeal that all the bees would be brought together to be auctioned for charity later this year.

The bee above, called The Homing Bee, is the artist C'Art  Dawes's reflection of her brush with homelessness and the need for everyone to have somewhere to call home.

Above is Rocket the Steam (punk) Bee. It reflects the

growth of industry and transport in the city in the 19th century and also the Victorian inspired Science Fiction popularised by writer Jules Verne.

This was one of my favourite bees.  Pablo Bee-Casso created by Jenny Leonard.

Industrious Bee in the garden at the Museum of Science and Industry.  The worker bee has been transformed into a mechanical steam machine.

Bee-Live in MCR created by Amy Coney has signatures of some of the artists who have performed in Manchester.  Dedicated to the artists and their fans who keep Manchester alive and gigging.

Distiller Bee by Kate- Laura Chapman celebrates the rise in popularity of gin and shows the ingredients used in the process like Juniper berries, thyme and lemon balm.

Above is The Crown Jewels one of the little bees which we spotted in the Manchester Art Gallery.  It was created by jewellery artist Ambrin and celebrates the Suffragette movement, reflects on the history of jewellery and wonders that if Manchester had their own crown jewels what they would be like.

I expect you are all bee'd out by now.  I'll be back in a few days with another post (non bee related) about our visit.

A Voyage on The Snowdrop

I was already awake when the alarm went off at 5 o'clock this morning, we were up, dressed, lunch packed and ready to leave the house by 6 o'clock to drive up to Crewe Station where we had a light breakfast before boarding the 7a.m. train to Manchester. The train was nearly empty as it went through Homes Chapel and Goostrey (where we passed by Jodrell Bank). A few people joined us at Alderley Edge and Wilmslow and quite a few more at Stockport. We arrived at Manchester just before 8a.m. and followed the signs to the Metro Link where, on the platform, we had fun with the ticket machine - it kept spitting out our 50 pence pieces. We got there in the end and then stood on a packed platform waiting for the link to Eccles. When it arrived everyone crammed tightly into the carriages and as we sped through the city towards Salford Quays more and more people seemed to be getting on at the stops but not many were getting off. By 9a.m. we had managed to fight our way off the metro and were walking down towards the Lowry and along the avenue of trees to find what we were looking for. There was already a queue waiting to board so we tagged on the end, pleased with ourselves that we had got there in time to take our cruise on the Mersey Ferry along the Manchester Ship Canal.



I will write more of the actual voyage later but suffice to say that we had a wonderful time, the weather was excellent, we saw some wonderful things and really enjoyed the commentary by the Blue Badge guide. The ferry arrived in Liverpool just before 4p.m. and we found the St James Station for the underground link to Lime Street; here we had tea and cake before catching the train back to Crewe to pick up our car from the station car park. We arrived home at 6p.m., exactly twelve hours after we had left the house that morning.